GarageBand for Windows XP

Phillip writes, "I was wondering if you could possibly help me with a recommendation. My daughter used an Apple laptop and is now using a WinXP Pro laptop. She is quite happy with the whole matter other than her inability to find any software that she feels is comparable to Apple's GarageBand. Any suggestions?"

Ever since Apple first released GarageBand, I've been desperate to find something that comes close to the simplicity of GarageBand's loop-based music composition. Many loop-based composition tools have been around forever. Sony Acid Pro, Adobe Audition, Propellerhead Reason, Steinberg Cubase and Cakewalk Project 5 are among the pro solutions for composing with loops. Steinberg offers the Cubase SE entry level product for $99. Cakewalk Kinetic is priced around $70. One other app, which I haven't personally tried is Sony Acid Music Studio, which purports to be a light version of Acid Pro, which may mean it's confusing to use. The one thing all these solutions lack is ease of use.

I finally have a good answer for this question - Mixcraft.

Mixcraft is the first application I've used for Windows that I can sit down and start building a song in a matter of minutes. It integrates loop importing. It's compatible with Apple Loops used in GarageBand. You can record your own voice or music tracks if you want to. Beat matching and key changes happen on the fly just like they do in GarageBand. Acoustica, the people who make Mixcraft, finally got it right for PC users.

If you're looking for the simplicity of GarageBand, but don't own a Mac, go download Mixcraft immediately.